\n<\/p>\n
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia lauded the Trump administration on Thursday for its efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Speaking in Moscow at the annual meeting of Russia\u2019s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, Mr. Putin praised the new U.S. administration for \u201cpragmatism, a realistic worldview\u201d and \u201cdiscarding many stereotypes, so-called \u2018rules\u2019 and messianic, ideological clich\u00e9s of their predecessors.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he blamed Joe Biden, the former president, for causing a crisis in the \u201centire system of international relations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first contacts with the new American administration give us some hope,\u201d he said in televised comments. \u201cThere is a mutual willingness to work on restoring the relations and gradually tackle the colossal amount of the systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture that had piled up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Mr. Putin\u2019s comments extended a pattern of praise for the new American president as Russia looks to draw the United States into its camp and against Ukraine and Europe. The remarks follow an unexpected thaw between Moscow and Washington after more than a decade of strife ignited by the Kremlin\u2019s aggression in Ukraine that started with the largely bloodless annexation of Crimea in 2014.<\/p>\n
The tensions erupted into an all-out war in 2022 when Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine in what has come to be Europe\u2019s bloodiest conflict since the end of World War II. The invasion engendered hostility from the Biden administration and much of the West.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Despite his recent praise, the Russian president of 25 years has also regularly made it clear that he views the United States as an adversary and would look for ways to undermine it, including ordering an online campaign and hacking attacks targeting the 2016 elections in the United States.<\/p>\n
In a head-spinning shift of relations that followed a phone call between Mr. Putin and President Trump, top U.S. and Russian officials sat down for talks<\/a> in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, last week for their first negotiations since before the Russian invasion. As the first concrete step to demonstrate good will by both sides, they agreed to restore diplomatic staffing in both countries, which has been at skeletal levels because of several rounds of mutual expulsions and restrictions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n President Putin on Thursday, however, was cautious about the progress in the talks, saying that elements of the Western establishment were \u201cstill intent on stoking the instability in the world and trying to derail or smear the dialogue that has been launched.\u201d<\/p>\n